Budville
©
Budville

Budville

Semi-ghost town on old Route 66, centred on Bud Rice’s closed trading post and unsolved murder story

Budville is a semi-ghost town along Route 66 in Cibola County, New Mexico. It grew up around the trading post operated by Bud Rice, a native of nearby Cubero who ran a towing service, garage, and served as a local judge. In 1967 Rice was murdered in a crime that remains unsolved, and the town never really recovered. The trading post still stands alongside the old highway, closed but intact — one of those quietly haunting Route 66 stops where the story is more compelling than the scenery.

If you are driving the old Route 66 alignment through western New Mexico, Budville is a brief but worthwhile pause between Grants and the Acoma Pueblo turnoff.

Guide

Getting There

Budville sits on the south side of Interstate 40, exit 96, between Grants (15 miles west) and the Acoma Pueblo turn-off (5 miles east). Take the exit, drop down onto NM-124 — the old Route 66 alignment — and follow it east to the trading post. The whole detour from the interstate takes ten minutes.

There is no public transport. Greyhound buses on I-40 do not stop here, and the nearest passenger train is the Amtrak Southwest Chief through Gallup, sixty miles to the west. A car is essential.

Guide

Things to Do

Budville is a 30-second stop on a long drive — there is no town in any meaningful sense, just the abandoned trading post by the highway. The pleasure is the drive itself: the section of pre-interstate Route 66 between Grants and Albuquerque is one of the best surviving alignments anywhere on the old road, with mesas, lava beds, ghost trading posts and the great rock of Acoma Pueblo all visible from the car.

Combine Budville with Cubero, San Fidel and the turn-off to Acoma Pueblo for a half-day Route 66 itinerary.